I'm about to get an Autometer Phantom gauge setup. Well the other gauges as far as I can tell will pretty much wire right into the factory sending units.

The Speedometer on the other had doesn't. I'd have to by a 65 dollar cable adapter. Which wouldn't be such a big deal but my speedo cable is not working. I don't know if it's just the cable or the sending unit. Either way I was thinking about changing over to a Electric speedo sending unit. Can I hook the electric sending unit straight up to the Autometer speedo. Or is there something else I need. If I have to buy a 65 dollar adapter, then possibly a 20 dollar speedo cable and/or factory sending unit it would be much cheaper just to buy the factory electric sending unit.

My main question is will a Autometer speedo work correctly off of a factory electric sending unit?

 

Autometer gauges won;t work correctly using your factory senders. The resistance is different in the senders for the autometers then your factory gauges. the only one i know of that you can use without changing the sender is the fuel gauge if you order the 0-90 OHM fuel gauge. As for the speedo if your car has a mecanical speedo then you can either use the adapter and get the mechanical autometer speedo. Or if you have a stock electric speedo you should be able to tap the speedo sensor wire and the autometer electric speedo should self calibrate itself. If you have a Mechanical speedo and you want to get an autometer electric speedo then you can get the part that autometer sells that will screw to your speedo cable and change the signal to be used with an electric speedo. HTH anyone feel free to chime in if i missed/am incorrect about anything

 

you seem pretty smart with this stuff.. i have a question if you dont mind. i changed from a 700r4 to a t-5 my t-5 has a electric speedo sender. my car uses the mechanical sender... did any t-5s come with mechanical senders? id like to keep the factory speedometer but i guess if i had to get an aftermarket electronic gauge that is a possibility if i could get it to work correctly with the electronic sender on my t-5... what would you suggest i do?

 

What year is the T-5 in your car? I'm pretty sure thet the older models were running the mechanical speedo. You maybe be able to get the setup from an older trans and swap it over but I'm not def sure on that. All the electric sender does it has gears that spin with the trans but just sends an electric pulse to the speedo. the mechanical one would just spin the cable. I don't think that there is anything made by autometer that would be able to change from electric to mechanical. the ony one I know of will screw onto the speedo cable and make an electronic pulse. you may want to check with any t-5 rebuilders and see if they have any type of adapters. since you have an 88 they do make the nice aftermarket gauge panel that bolts right in the stock location and has a all the wiring you need. like stated before you will just need to change the approiate senders. HTH

 

FYI: Speedo heads were mechanical from 82-89, electric from 90-92.

JamesC